Penny Investigations: The Caltech Murder
by marcelb
Summary: Leonard's Monday morning is off to a bad start when he finds a dead man in his lab. Worse, the detective seems to think Leonard is the murderer. Leonard's luck changes when a beautiful and observant consultant begins her investigation. This story follows Penny as she unravels the mystery while dealing with unexpected - and unwanted - feelings for a cute physicist. Completed!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I know what you're thinking: "Marcel, you promised you would try not to post anything new until some of your current work was finished." I tried, honestly; I just failed. But, this story comes with good news: it's complete. Five chapters of a murder mystery, starring our beloved Penny. Five chapters I planned meticulously.**

**A story of this genre doesn't lend itself for my usual "by the seats of my pants" style of writing. It also doesn't lend itself to not have someone else look it over for whatever I might have missed; for the first time in quite a few years I enlisted the help of a beta, in this case the amazing bfm10 (by the way, you better be reading her "The Corollary Theory" story).**

**Some important notes, before we dive into the first chapter. First, this story is a Penny story. A certain bespectacled, cute experimental physicist does make a favorable impression on her, but it's not going to be a Lenny story. Other than Leonard and Sheldon, none of the other BBT characters are going to appear in this story.**

**Second, except for the first two scenes, every scene is focused on Penny, the way she is investigating the crime, and some of her inner thoughts.**

**Third, since I've been having so much fun with detective Penny, I've started a second story, which is nearing completion. This means that _Penny Investigations_ is likely going to be a series. I felt a series should get it's own cover, make it stand out.**

**Fourth, yes I used a beta this time. She's done a bang-up job, fixed and suggested a lot of things. And then I made some changes here and there. The point being, any mistakes you'll find are most certainly caused by me changing things.**

**Lastly, chapters will be posted every single week, same Penny-day, same(-ish) Penny-time.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Big Bang Theory, Penny, Leonard or Sheldon. I can (and will) claim ownership of detective Kelvin Dale and any of the original characters that will appear in this story.**

* * *

_Penny Investigations: The Caltech Murder_

* * *

Leonard shook his head as Sheldon walked into his office, after informing him that they were in fact two minutes later than they normally would be. Of course Sheldon had turned it into a reprimand and demanded assurance this would not happen again. Leonard knew better than not assure his roommate this would indeed not happen again.

He exhaled loudly, before turning around to make his way back to his lab, wondering why Sheldon insisted Leonard accompany him to his office every morning. They passed Leonard's lab, so it just didn't make any sense for Leonard to join Sheldon all the way down here, but Leonard did it anyway, knowing that not doing it would only cause him headaches. At least he got some extra steps each day out of it, which was probably a good thing, given his lack in physical activities.

He fished his keys out of his pocket as he approached the corner to the short corridor to his lab, his mind going over the various things he'd be doing this week. Most of the week would be spent on writing out the results and conclusions of the experiment he'd completed. Then he'd have to prepare his lab for the new exciting experiments with the military laser that was delivered last Thursday. And, of course, write down which direction he'd try first, including the conditions to be met to be able to decide if further experimentation in that direction was warranted.

Exciting stuff, though he had his doubts if what the military wanted out of this, would really be possible. Most of the excitement had to do with the financial compensation involved, which would help the university - and by extension, him - in financing other needed equipment. Luckily the military had over budgeted the whole line of experiments; Leonard was fairly certain he could perform all the testing needed to get all the required conclusions for half the money the military was going to pay.

Leonard stuck the key into the lock and frowned when he couldn't turn it. He retracted the key and pushed it in again, and this time the door unlocked. With his foot he closed the door behind him; he was going to work on the paper, and didn't want to be disturbed. Not that many people made their way down to his lab, but still. He put his trusty messenger bag next to his computer, and turned the computer on.

As always, his first action was to start his coffee maker and he turned around. He screamed as he was confronted by a dead person laying in the middle of the lab; seconds later his breakfast made a return visit, and it was sheer luck most of it ended up in the waste basket near his feet.

* * *

# # #

* * *

Leonard was still very much shaken as detective Dale began to ask him questions. Luckily, the man blocked his sight of the dead body on the floor, but they were still in his lab. Some of the questions were a clear attempt at trying to make him confess, or at the very least catch him on an inconsistency in his answers; they viewed him as a suspect, that much was clear to him.

Leonard glanced at the door as a blond woman entered. She was about his height and walked in like she belonged here, though she didn't appear to be like the other people currently swarming around his lab. She actually looked at him for one second, looked him straight in the eyes, before her focus shifted all over the room, checking everything. With his eyes he followed her, finding it almost impossible to _not_ look at her.

"Dr. Hofstadter," detective Dale began another question. "What were you doing between ten pm and midnight?"

Leonard tore his gaze away from the blond woman. "In bed, going over the data of my latest experiments. Around eleven I put the results away, turned off the light and went to sleep."

"And you claim your roommate went to bed half an hour before you. So it's impossible for him to confirm you were there."

"Clearly Leonard's not the killer," the blond woman spoke as she approached them. Leonard had no idea how she even knew his first name; so far everyone had addressed him by his title and last name.

The detective turned to the woman, eyebrow raised, but he looked resigned, almost disappointed. "Care to elaborate, Penny?" What a wonderful name, Leonard thought.

Penny nodded. "Scratch marks near the lock indicate someone picked the lock, the victim is six foot one - considerably taller than Leonard, but the stab wound indicates the knife came down into his chest. Leonard is clearly right handed, but the killer is left handed."

Leonard was sure his mouth was hanging open; this woman had seen all that in matter of a minute? Detective Dale seemed less surprised, but was making notes, so she had at least seen a few things he and his team had not yet discovered. "Go on," detective Dale said, even sounding resigned now.

Penny smiled a little at the detective. "Cheer up, Kelvin, not all is lost." She pointed at the body. "The body was dragged in here. I noticed a little bit of blood right by the door, and a small trace from there to the body's current location. Interestingly, there's no blood in the hallway, so the murder seemed to have taken place by the door."

Penny frowned at the door, or rather, Leonard realized as he followed her gaze, the floor right by the door. She walked over, grabbed the door and half closed it. After a few seconds of looking at the side of the door that faced his lab, Penny walked back, slight confusion on her face.

Detective Dale had a slightly amused look on his face, Leonard noticed. "Something bothering you?"

"Sorta," Penny admitted. "The blood splatter pattern is kinda odd. I mean, there's hardly any splatters. The victim was stabbed from his front, no blood out in the hallway, and the door is also blood free. There should be something behind the victim as he was stabbed."

"As well as in front of him," Detective Dale added. "As the killer pulled out his knife, blood splatters would follow."

"You are assuming our killer removed his knife immediately. But if he left it in there, allowing the body to drop and only pull it out after the body is on the floor, preferably after waiting a while to ensure the blood pressure has dropped, there would hardly be any splatters. And any splatters would go up and come down almost straight."

The detective nodded, but Leonard was starting to feel sick again. Penny's matter-of-fact description had the unwanted side effect of him seeing the dead body again.

She didn't seem to notice, as she scanned his lab again. Suddenly she walked toward his storage bench, in the back corner of his lab. She studied it for a few seconds, before turning around. "Leonard, is there something missing here?"

Leonard walked over, happy to be further away from the dead man still laying on the floor, though thankfully covered with a tarp. He frowned slightly, as he didn't often go to this section, until it was time to switch projects. The first thing he checked was if the laser the military had delivered last Thursday was still there. It was, but as he looked more closely he realized it was, in fact, not completely there. "Um, seems like a section is missing from the high powered laser the military provided."

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny stared at her computer screen, on which she'd put the evidence of the burglary at Caltech. She looked again at the photo of Leonard Hofstadter. Her intuition told her he had nothing to do with either the murder or the theft, but she couldn't objectively rule out his contribution to the theft. She really hoped he had nothing to do with any of it; he seemed like a nice guy and he was kinda cute.

She sighed and forced her attention back to the evidence at hand. She zoomed in on the images of the dead body. The stab wound was determined to be the cause of death by the medical examiner; not very surprising, as this was the only serious wound. She panned to the report; male, late twenties, six-one, and in good physical health. No personal belongings, not even an ID.

Clearly the dead man hadn't wanted to inadvertently leave any evidence, which put him in the criminal column. Too bad his partner had decided to double cross him. Or did he? Penny suddenly sat up straighter, staring ahead. Kelvin and her had come to the conclusion the burglars had gotten into a disagreement, resulting in one dead partner, but what if there had actually been two burglars trying to steal the same thing?

She glanced at the clock. Caltech should still be open. Penny turned off her monitor and grabbed her jacket, checking to assure herself she had both a set of latex gloves as well as a couple of evidence bags and left her apartment, rushing downstairs to her car. As always, she took speed limits to be suggestions and arrived at the university in under five minutes. She showed her ID to the police man posted, who informed her his colleague had just gone into the lab, at the request of Kelvin. She entered the building, making a beeline for Leonard's lab, but decided to check the hallway first.

She studied the floor once more, this time much more carefully and meticulously. There was absolutely no indication of a struggle here, neither was there any sign of blood ever having been there. She looked at the lock once more, studying it up close. Whoever had picked it, didn't seem to have much experience in doing so. But they seemed to have had the foresight of wearing gloves, as there had been no prints whatsoever.

There really was no way to determine who had picked the lock, or even if it was picked twice. So, maybe her new hypothesis of two burglars wasn't correct either. What if the killer had removed any personal belongings the victim might have had on him? That was definitely a possibility, but that did not necessarily mean the killer had tried to prevent anyone from finding a link between him and the victim.

But why had the victim been here, then? What possible reason could there be for him to be out here, near Leonard's lab? The only reason seemed to be the missing laser equipment. The man had been in good physical health. Could he be military, guarding the lab to prevent it being stolen? Even in civilian clothing, a soldier would have had dog tags on him. Closing her eyes, she recalled the victim and the photo's she'd studied. There had been a thin stripe of slightly lighter skin on his neck; not exactly hard proof of there having been dog tags, but still.

But how then, would he have been surprised by the killer? Assuming the victim had been guarding the lab, he would've seen the killer coming, wouldn't he? She glanced down the corridor; the lab was at the very end, so the closest the killer could've been would be the lab across, which had its door towards the junction to the main corridor. That's a good thirty feet. That didn't seem to be enough to catch a trained soldier off guard, at least not to the extent of there not being any struggle.

Penny stood up straight and looked around herself. If she'd be guarding the lab, where would she put herself? Only one answer, right in front of the back wall, with the lab's door to her left. She'd have the best view of the corridor, could easily see the door of the lab on the right, and see anyone passing by in the connecting corridor. No, there was no way a trained soldier could have been surprised by the attacker, not when he was standing in this position. There were no blood splatters on the wall anyway, she'd already thoroughly checked that earlier today.

She turned to the lab's door and reached for the doorknob, deciding to take one more look inside. At the same time, one of the police officers opened the door from the inside. Sharon - Penny had met her on several investigations before - gasped and put her hand on her chest.

"Geez, Penny, you scared me half to death."

"Sorry," she apologized, then turned her eyes to the floor. It took only a second to find what she'd hoped to find. She retrieved her cell phone and selected Kelvin's contact.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Some of you (looking at you, dearest beta, and you, warriorcreed) have expressed their disagreement in not having Leonard and Penny in a relationship. It's not going to happen in this story, but after some back and forth with my beta, I have changed the end of the chapter five to at least leave the door open in future Penny Investigations stories.**

**Anyway, on with the story.**

* * *

"What did you find now?"

Penny grinned as Kelvin walked around the corner; despite his best effort at appearing to be annoyed by her and her investigative skills, she knew for certain he respected her, even admired her gifts in observation and deduction. Penny pointed to the floor, right at the edge of the lab. "Looks like someone dropped something."

Kelvin looked at the floor, knelt down to take a closer look and then stood up. "So you think those markings were caused by the killer dropping the laser part as he left the lab?"

"Actually," Penny said, "the dead guy dropped it, as he left the lab and the killer put a knife in him."

Kelvin sighed. "Okay, run that by me, from the start, please?"

"It started with me wondering if we were even correct in our assumption of two partners with one double crossing the other. I figured, it could have been two burglars, trying to steal the same thing."

Kelvin nodded. "Seems possible."

"I know, right? But it still bothered me there was no sign of a struggle. Oh, by the way, the dead guy was most likely military. The killer probably removed the dog tags to make it harder for us to identify him."

"Right," Kelvin said as he made a note in his notepad. Penny was glad she'd been consulting for Kelvin for a while; he rarely questioned her deductions, unless they seemed really outlandish. And even then, it was more him playing devil's advocate, forcing her to elaborate.

"Anyway, I thought dead soldier guy was guarding the lab, making sure the laser wouldn't be stolen. But I pretty quickly concluded that it wasn't very likely the killer would have surprised him so badly he couldn't even try to defend himself."

Kelvin looked around, proving to Penny he was indeed a sharp observer and deducer himself. "Right, no way anyone could surprise a trained soldier standing guard. Also, the most logical place for the guard would have been in front of that wall, and there are no blood splatters on it."

"Exactly," Penny agreed. "I kinda got stuck there, and I decided, since I was here anyway, I'd take another look in the lab. I scared Sharon half to death, as she just opened the door as I reached to open it. That's when it hit me, why soldier guy had been surprised."

"He'd been inside," Kelvin concluded. He glanced at the floor. "Carrying the part, so I assume he was burglar number one."

Penny nodded. "Yup, that's my final conclusion. So, two burglars, working independently from each other, but both here specifically to steal a controller for a military-provided, high power laser."

"And, since they were working independently, there's no link between the two."

"Oh, I'm sure there is. We may not see it right now, but there's no way two unrelated parties knew about the laser even being here."

Kelvin nodded. "Yeah, good point." He paused. "What about the blood splatters, though?"

Penny retrieved an evidence bag, holding a piece of fabric. "I think this belongs to something our sneaky soldier was wearing." She handed it to Kelvin. "I believe the knife didn't go all the way through the clothing, holding the blood splatters in for the most part."

Kelvin carefully looked at the piece of fabric. "There's absolutely no drop of blood on this. Could it have been from a backpack?"

Penny thought for a second. "Yeah, that's a possibility."

Kelvin put his notepad away. "I'll look into the military angle, see if we can find a match."

Penny nodded. "I'll go visit Leonard, see if he can give me more information about the laser, why it is so special, or if he noticed anything weird when it was delivered."

* * *

# # #

* * *

As always when Penny arrived at a location she'd never been before, Penny took some time to carefully look around, storing important details in her memory. She'd only been regularly consulting for the police department for a year or so, which had helped her become that much better at her skills. But even before that, before she left Nebraska, her eyes and ears had usually been put to good use, though she'd never done anything.

The corner building provided enough escape routes and was easy to observe from any of the buildings on the other corners of the intersection. The main entrance was actually located at East Woodbury Road, though Penny could see signs there had at one time been an entrance on the North Los Robles side. A Chevron station was just down the street.

Satisfied she'd taken in all the important things, she strode to the entrance, surprised to see that there was an intercom system, yet the front door was open to anyone. Once inside she immediately noticed there were sixteen apartments; with none on the ground floor, that meant there were two apartments per floor. Annoyed, she looked at the out-of-order sign on the elevator and began her trek to the fourth floor.

On the second floor she really noticed how dirty the elevator doors looked; it seemed like it hadn't been used in a few years, and she wondered why the tenants weren't demanding it being repaired as quickly as possible. Then again, maybe they had, she thought as she approached the third floor. Maybe she could look into this later, find out why it wasn't being repaired, just to help out Leonard and the other occupants.

She knocked on the door to apartment 4A and was soon greeted by a surprised Leonard. "Hi! I have a few more questions I wanted to ask and I was told you were working from home for the time being. Can I come in?"

"Um, yeah, of course."

Penny didn't think his nervousness had anything to do with the murder or the break-in, but much more about a woman just being there. You didn't need to be a keen observer to understand that Leonard's life had left much to be desired in the relationship department. A keen observer like her would even pick up on the lack of any emotional relationship with his parents and siblings. And she had definitely noticed how he'd looked at her on their first meeting. One plus one equals two. In all likelihood, he'd spent most of his time afterward driving himself crazy with all sorts of imaginary situations and finding himself lacking.

The apartment was pretty neat, especially considering it was occupied by two heterosexual men. Well, Leonard was most likely heterosexual, considering he'd only dated women, few as there had been. She had yet to meet his roommate but her brief investigation into him hadn't shown any relationship whatsoever. She did find his mother had had him tested, to make sure he wasn't crazy (her word-for-word answer to the question "what's the reason for the psychological evaluation."). Interestingly, that particular evaluation center had only been in business for a total of one year, after which it came to light their testing methodology, as well as the psychologists working there, were questionable. Maybe Penny should let Dr. Cooper's mother know about that, perhaps subject him to another test at a respected psychological evaluation center?

"So, um, you want something to drink?"

Penny smiled, trying to put him at ease. "Just water, please." Usually her smile would work wonders on guys, but on Leonard it seemed to have to opposite effect, and he became just a bit more nervous.

* * *

# # #

* * *

Leonard seemed to have calmed down a little, though he would still nervously fiddle with his hands. "I can see why that would be your roommate's favorite spot," Penny said, indicating the empty spot on the couch that was the closest to the chair she was currently in.

"Wha- how'd you know he has a favorite spot and that that is it?"

She shrugged. "I've done my research on both of you. He obviously has a fixed routine, given the fact you always eat the same food every week, so it stands to reason he has a favorite spot and that he won't like it if anyone else sat there. You clearly hesitated on deciding where to sit, and you chose the middle seat, instead of the one closest to me. Then I noticed how ideal that spot is. It's not too close to the heating, it's right in the center of a cross-breeze when you open the windows there," she pointed at the large window, "and there," she pointed at a smaller window in the corner of the opposite wall.

"It's facing the TV at an angle that doesn't cause much distortion of the image, doesn't invite conversation, yet doesn't give off the impression he wouldn't want it."

"How do you do that," Leonard asked, a mixture of wonder and admiration in both his voice and his facial expression.

Penny shrugged again. "Just a good observer, I guess. Over time I've learned to read the little things in behaviors, the small details at a location, discrepancies in stories. From that I learned how to connect the dots, fill in the blanks, see the things that people were trying desperately to hide."

"It's amazing, uh, li- like you can read minds, or - or travel back in time and watch it play out."

Once more Penny shrugged, not sure how else to respond. Her observational skills were, to some extent, natural and while they were an immense asset in her police consulting job, there were definite downsides. Having a relationship, even just friendship, could be very taxing; Penny had to focus on not observing as much as she could, or it would drive her friends away. Not to mention a boyfriend; he'd have a hard time just surprising her with anything.

"So, um, you had questions?"

Penny nodded. "Yes. I want to start off with telling you the dead body you found was most likely a military man." His surprise was genuine, confirmation to Penny that Leonard had really never seen the man before. "We've determined he was killed upon exiting your lab _with_ the laser controller module."

"That doesn't make sense," Leonard said. "If the military needed it back, they could've asked for it and pick it up today."

Penny agreed. "That's why we think he was stealing it, and burglar number two caught him sneaking out and killed him, right in your doorway. Anyway, I have some questions with regard to the laser. I assume that, since the military provided it, it is a special type of laser?" Leonard's frown looked cute, Penny decided, before she quickly admonished herself for not focusing on his response.

"Well, actually, from the specifications, I'd say it's quite a mundane laser. No special wavelength, no top-secret new power source, just your average, high-powered research laser."

Penny hummed, surprised at the answer. "Nothing out of the ordinary? Anything special about the stolen module?"

He shook his head. "No, not as far as I could determine. I-I may have looked at it Friday. Uh.. Just to see what it could do. No-nothing illegal."

"Relax, Leonard, we're not investigating if you played with your new toy." She smiled at him and this time Leonard chuckled. "What are you supposed to research?"

"Oh, um, the military wanted me to determine if the high-powered laser could be used to knock out incoming ballistic missiles."

Penny frowned. "Is it usual for the military to delegate such research?"

Leonard nodded. "Yes, quite often, actually. Most scientists are working for universities, and the military will gladly use their expertise."

Penny nodded. "I see. Was there anything unusual you may have noticed when the laser was delivered? Perhaps someone checking your lab, the door lock, or asked you odd questions, like if you ever work on Sunday's, what time you leave, if you always lock your lab, anything like that?"

Leonard was clearly trying to remember, his face scrunched up in deep concentration. Slowly he shook his head. "No, not that I remember. Sorry."

Penny sighed, knowing it had been a long shot anyway. "It's okay, Leonard. I'm going to figure it out, it's just going to be a bit harder." She grabbed her phone and stopped the recording as she put it in her pocket. "Okay, I'm gonna go home and try connecting some more dots." Leonard walked her to the door. "I hope you'll get a new controller soon, so you can start vaporizing missiles for the military."

Leonard chuckled. "To be honest, a laser being able to do anything to a missile is highly improbable. I did mention that to them, twice, but they insisted I look into it anyway."

Penny paused and turned around. "Wait, you've told them you doubted the research would lead anywhere and they _still_ wanted you to do the research?"

* * *

**To be continued**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Um, whadda ya mean this is not Tuesday? Yes, I know, I'm a few days late. Turns out Tuesday not the optimal day for me to schedule posting chapters. So, better late than never, I give you chapter 3; it's the shortest (by like twenty words).  
**

* * *

Penny sat at her little desk, staring at the note she'd added to her case board on her computer. At the same time, she listened to a playback of the second conversation she and Leonard had. He was explaining the theory, and why it was improbable it would ever work. His confidence in this recording stood in stark contrast to the first recording, in which he sounded every bit as nervous and insecure as he had looked.

She couldn't deny having enjoyed Leonard's teaching mode, as she had dubbed it. Most of it went way over her head, but seeing and hearing him so sure, his voice that much stronger, the lack of any kind of stammer, it all had been interesting to witness. It had also stirred up some feelings inside that she'd denied herself for over a year.

Penny paused the playback when her phone rang. "Hey, Kelvin."

"_Our dead military man is Corporal Jerrod Mercer, twenty-seven years of age and reported AWOL as of Thursday._"

"The day the laser was delivered," Penny said with a nod, adding the info to the dead man's photo and medical examiner's report. "Military Police was looking for him, I assume?"

"_Yes, but interestingly, someone up the command chain had sent a memo, informing them the Corporal had fallen ill._"

Penny frowned. "But Military Police was still looking into it?"

"_Yeah, because the memo was not signed and there was no information on who'd sent the note. They looked into that, as well, and found that memo had been moving around since Wednesday, going up, down and sideways the command chain. Someone's gone through a lot of effort to hide their part, and so far, successfully it seems._"

"Huh, weird," Penny said, typing it into a new note, adding the word 'partner' - with a question mark behind it - to the top.

"_Did Dr. Hofstadter have anything worthwhile?_"

"He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when the laser was being delivered. And the laser wasn't exactly top-secret high tech, but a rather average laser."

"_Uh huh._" Kelvin's reply was a clear indication he knew there was more to tell.

"Question, a well-respected experimental physicist, specialized in lasers, and someone you have specifically sought out, tells you not once, but twice, that the research you want him to do is unlikely to result in anything usable, would you then still insist on having the research done anyway?"

"_That does seem odd. It's like they wanted the laser controller to be at Caltech._"

"Or at the very least, off of the base," Penny added with a nod. "They needed a legitimate reason to get it out, and used Leonard to do so. Then they sent a guy to break in, take the laser controller and bring it back to them, and they could then sell the controller."

"_But another party knew about it and also went in to steal it, surprised our Corporal, stabbed him, and took the controller._"

Penny nodded. "Yeah. So, who else knew about it? Did the seller already have a party, even contacted them on when they could deliver? I feel we should start with finding out who was selling it, work from there."

"_Are we sure the Corporal wasn't in it for himself?_"

"As sure as we can be. A Corporal wouldn't have the authorization to decide on research to be done or who the contract would go to. And there's the memo. You'd need to be in the officer grades to accomplish anything like that. So, I'm ninety-nine point nine percent sure the Corporal was just a tool an officer used to get his, or her, hands on the controller module."

"_Oh, we just obtained a warrant to search Mr. Mercer's residence. Want to come and have a look?_"

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny smiled at Kelvin as he walked up to the apartment building, a look of disappointment on his face.

"I see you still have trouble reading the speed limit signs."

Her smile turned into a grin. "Sometimes I just need to rest my observational skills, or I wouldn't be able to do my job."

He scoffed. "Right. I suppose I should be glad you waited for us, instead of picking the lock and go in by yourself."

Penny shrugged. "I didn't hear anything that warranted me to enter the building or the apartment in a hurry," she replied, a reference to her oft used excuse - hearing someone in distress or a crying baby - for entering a location without waiting for the police to arrive. She was well aware Kelvin knew it was just an excuse, her true reasons being to be able to catch the criminal before they'd be able get away or dispose of any evidence.

"Yes, and the Corporal apparently didn't forget to close the door."

Her second excuse for why she'd been inside a house or building, before the police arrived. She simply shrugged and put on a pair of latex gloves. Two minutes later the building's super had unlocked Mercer's apartment and Penny strode in after Kelvin. "All that practice and he still botched picking the Caltech lock," she said, pointing to an array of various locks placed neatly in the corner.

Penny did a quick survey from the center of the room. No books but a lot of DVDs, neatly arranged. A very large flat screen on the wall, brand new by the looks of it, as was the range of gaming consoles and the media center. "Looks like he'd already spent his earnings," she commented out loud. "Those are top of the line and installed very recently."

A small desk in the corner, the surface devoid of any notes or papers, was the first thing Penny wanted to look at more closely. The single drawer contained a modest stack of papers, but a quick scan of those yielded nothing of importance. Penny crouched down and looked at the front of the desk's top. It was pretty thick - at least two and a half inches, she estimated - which is exactly what had drawn her attention to the desk in the first place.

It took her a few seconds to discern the thin lines framing a separate section of the desk. With her hand she felt the bottom and within ten seconds a satisfying click pushed the section outward, just enough to grab it and pull it out. "Jackpot," she said, drawing Kelvin's attention. "Looks like someone had some leverage over the poor Corporal," she added just as Kelvin approached, handing him the incriminating piece of paper.

Kelvin skimmed it, then nodded. "Threatened to seriously injure his siblings and mother if he wouldn't steal the laser control module for them."

Penny nodded. "Here's a second letter, which says the laser would likely be at Caltech by the end of last week, and he received the first half of his payment." She passed it to Kelvin. "And this one has instructions on when and where to deliver the module." She hummed and held up the sheet in front of the window, showing her the indentations from a note that had apparently been written on a post-it on top of the letter. "You might want to look for someone named R. Spears. Whoever was threatening the Corporal had an appointment with this person on Wednesday at nine thirty." She frowned at the address. "Isn't there some sort of military research facility on East Foothill Boulevard?"

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny entered the precinct and walked over to Kelvin's desk. Seeing that he was on the phone, she gave him a small wave, forgoing her usual chirpy vocal greeting, which she was well aware he hated. Penny wasn't exactly a morning person, but Kelvin genuinely seemed to hate early mornings. Not that you could call eight forty-five early, but it would take another cup of coffee and about thirty minutes before he'd be pleasant enough. Penny sat down in the chair next to his desk, just as he ended his phone call.

"Ralph Spears," Kelvin started without so much as a hello, "is a software engineer."

"Good morning, Penny, how are you today? Good morning to you too, Kelvin. I'm fine, how about you?" Penny looked at him pointedly, very much enjoying this little game.

"'Morning," Kelvin said after a few seconds. "He works at..."

"...the defense research facility on East Foothill Boulevard," Penny completed, getting a sheet of paper out. "Twenty-four years of age, completed his studies two years ago, lives in LA." She handed the sheet over to Kelvin. "That information wasn't hard to come by, it's all public. It's too bad his Facebook profile can only be viewed by people who are on his friends list."

"Right," Kelvin said, checking her bullet points against his own. "Well, I'm gonna get another coffee and then I think we should have a little talk with Mr. Spears."

It was nearly an hour later when they arrived at the research facility. During sign in, Penny 'accidentally' dropped the clipboard; she'd noticed there weren't many visitors the previous day, and she wanted to take a peek at the preceding week, which would require her to flip back. She bent down to retrieve the fallen clipboard, took a good look at the two pages before the current one and placed it back on the counter to write her name below Kelvin's.

They were directed to a conference room, where Mr. Spears would join them soon. Penny used the time to store the names she'd read on the sign in sheet, on to her phone and started a search on the name that occurred several times in the past two and a half weeks she'd been able to see. After two minutes Ralph walked in and shook hands. He was only an inch or two taller than her and thus unlikely to be the killer. He did appear to see the inside of a gym on a regular basis, and clearly thought he'd be off to a good start by looking down her top, or at least try to.

The interview yielded little information; it was clear the line of questioning was making Ralph very nervous, though he tried to hide it as best as he could. His nervousness reached its peak when Kelvin asked about the Caltech laser and if he had had any part in it. He admitted to have written the controller software, but other than that, he was not involved in the project. He was evading several followup questions, something she was sure Kelvin noticed as well. After about ten minutes, Kelvin ended the interview and Penny and he left.

"Besides being very nervous and evading my questions, I seriously doubt he's the killer."

"I agree. He's too short and right handed. I think we should pay a visit to Phil Bonner, though."

Kelvin raised an eyebrow, but kept his eyes on the road. "Who's he, and how would that help?"

"Phil is Ralph's cousin. Based on the photo he's six-four and he has lots of muscles."

"How the hell do you know his height? How did you even find out about him? Mr. Spears' Facebook profile is hidden, right?"

"It was a police mugshot, with handy height indicator lines," Penny replied. "Arrested several times, the last few times for breaking-and-entering, but there have been a few times when he was arrested for assault, including one stabbing, but the victim survived. As to how I found out about him, his name was on the sign-in sheet, three times in the last two and a half weeks. I've noted the other names on my phone and will do a search on them later. And Ralph may have secured his profile, Phil hasn't and has several pictures of him with his, and I quote, nerdy but cool cuz, end quote."

"I guess the clipboard didn't accidentally fall," Kelvin said. "One of these days you have to teach me how to speed-read. I'll contact the precinct and ask for his address."

"Kelvin, Kelvin," she said, shaking her head. "Do you think you're working with an amateur here?"

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**A/N2: ******I did not just point randomly at a map and came up with the address at Mercer's place. **3452 East Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena, is in fact one of the US Defense Investigation Services locations in Pasadena (there's another one at** **202 South Lake Avenue, if you must know); yes, I do research things sometimes.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Penny Investigations time again. Clearly, my original Tuesday plan is officially out the window. Friday's it is. We're almost there, anyway; only one chapter to go after this.**

* * *

Cousin Phil was frustratingly hard to find, Penny and Kelvin found by the time they returned to the precinct at a little after six. They were both fairly certain cousin Phil had killed the corporal, and probably had taken the missing controller with him, but so far they had been unable to locate him, or the stolen object. It was frustrating, definitely, but Penny knew that sometimes these things took a bit more time. Especially since it was the police who were asking questions, and Phil's buddies were in the same line of work as him.

"I know Phil is an important piece of the puzzle," Kelvin started, finishing typing up his notes, "but I'm sure we - and by we, I mean the police - will be able to locate him. I think it's better if you focus your attention on the other piece of the puzzle: who was threatening Corporal Mercer?"

Penny nodded. "I've actually thought the same thing earlier today. I'll keep you posted, but I'd like to be present when you question cousin Phil."

"Sure, no problem." Kelvin glanced at his watch. "Right, I think I'm gonna call it a day, spend a little time with my son, before he has to go to bed."

"Good for you," she said, walking with him towards the exit. "I'll get a head start on finding the man behind the curtain." It wasn't until she was in the car that she realized something both her and Kelvin had forgotten to ask Leonard: who had assigned the project to him? Given the facts they had, that person would be a good starting point to continue the investigation. A little while later she found herself parking at North Los Robles, instead of her own apartment building. She quickly checked her face in the rear-view mirror before stepping out. She was halfway up the staircase before she realized she had actually checked her appearance and shook her head, urging herself to focus on the case.

She smiled brightly as Leonard opened the door, who again was surprised to see her, but acted a little less nervous and awkward. He invited her in and Penny finally met Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Introductions were made and Penny was confronted by a self-centered man, who simply refused to believe that she could possibly be smart and observant. Considering that Dr. Cooper was not her reason for the visit anyway, she decided to let it slide. "I have a few more questions, Leonard."

"You should ask them somewhere else," Dr. Cooper interrupted. "I'm trying to watch this."

Okay, Penny was definitely going to send Mary Cooper the proof that the institute she'd had used to test if Sheldon was crazy, had not been as good as she may have thought. "I want to ask them in private," she clarified, hoping Dr. Cooper would cooperate. Why she thought that would be the case, she had no idea.

"Then you may come back tomorrow, after Leonard has dropped me off at Caltech."

What the hell? Leonard had to drive this jack-ass to Caltech, even though that was the last place Leonard would want to be at right now? "Can we go to your room, Leonard?"

"Uh, I-I-I guess."

"You can't have coitus without twenty-four hours notice, Leonard."

Penny rolled her eyes. "We're not going to have coitus. Show the way, Leonard," she added, dismissing the tall, lanky scientist. She followed him and closed the door behind her. His room was filled with all kinds of figurines and other nerdy things, something Leonard seemed self-conscious about. "Relax, Sweetie, I already know you're a nerd."

He smiled nervously, but finally sat down on the bed, the only place to sit. He clearly wanted to get up, suddenly realizing this might not be right, but Penny resolutely sat down next to him. "First, how are you doing," she asked, rubbing his arm in sympathy when he shrugged.

"You must think I'm really pathetic to be affected by seeing... well, what I saw."

"No, I don't. In fact, I'd be very concerned if you _weren't_ affected like that." She paused, seeing his next argument forming in his mind. "Just because I don't show it, doesn't mean I'm not affected by it," she answered the question he wanted to ask. "Every time I'm going over a murder scene, I work really hard to keep my emotions at bay. Only when I'm by myself, I take the time to process all the emotions. And I found that trying to figure out what exactly happened, helps me deal with it."

Seeing him struggle, she felt the urge to give him a hug, hold him. It was after about half a minute holding Leonard that she heard a floorboard squeak. Under the door, where a streak of light from the hallway came through, she could see a shadow move. Was the whackadoodle trying to eavesdrop? Or perhaps he feared they were doing it anyway?

She ended the hug, knowing Sheldon had just about reached the door. She put her finger to her lips and gave Leonard a wink. "Oh, God, yes. Oh, yeah, Leonard, right there. Oh baby, that's it."

"Aha! I knew it! I said no coitus and..."

Penny grinned as Sheldon stopped mid-sentence, realizing he'd been duped. Nevertheless, she had to address this. "And I said I had to ask Leonard some questions in private."

* * *

# # #

* * *

Sitting at her computer, Penny found herself unaccustomedly distracted from her investigation. Her mind kept going back to Leonard regularly, and definitely not always in connection to information she'd obtained from him. Because of his whackadoodle of a roommate, Leonard and her had made their way over to a park nearby, where they'd sat down and talked.

She'd found herself getting lost in his eyes, rubbing his arms to express sympathy, even hugging him several times. It was a miracle she hadn't forgotten to ask him about this case, her original goal for the evening. Somehow the evening had morphed into something entirely different, much more focused on getting to know each other. She had told him surprisingly much about her life.

This was stupid. Relationships, for her, were impossible to maintain. How many exes, and even friends, had complained to her always "investigating" them, making them feel as if she didn't trust them? Almost every single one of them. Especially boyfriends. It was hard for her to ignore a mystery, not trying to get to the bottom of things. This made things especially difficult with romantic relationships; whenever an ex tried to surprise her in someway, she had gone and figure it out on her own, ruining a perfectly nice, romantic gesture. She couldn't do that to Leonard. She gasped as she realized she'd already categorized a hypothetical relationship with Leonard as romantic.

She'd fallen for the nerd. And why wouldn't she? He was smart, kind, cute. Why hadn't anyone else snatched him up already? How couldn't anyone see the amazing boyfriend Leonard would be to them? She couldn't possibly be the only woman on the planet seeing that. She groaned as she realized she'd once again spent her time thinking of Leonard. Not to mention the direction of those thoughts.

It was right at that time her search program, created by one of her acquaintances, began listing various results for her person of interest. She leaned forward when she noticed some results were very interesting indeed. What caught her eye immediately was a handwritten memo, a surprising find. She compared it to the indentations they found earlier and noticed the handwriting was identical. That meant General Derek Foster was involved in this, and had more than likely threatened the corporal and forced him to cooperate.

Penny had already begun to suspect him, the moment Leonard said he'd always dealt with another general, except for this particular project. Combine that with the fact the general had insisted on performing the experiments, despite the fact Leonard had told him it would be highly unlikely to lead to anything, and it became obvious the general had had an ulterior motive.

Even more interesting was the fact a large portion of his file consisted of redacted briefs. Penny could only think of one reason why there would be so many: the man was a former spy, probably NSA, given the fact the General had been linked to the military almost his entire adult life. She paused, contemplating her findings. She quickly typed an email to her hacker friend; he had assured her his search program would be untraceable, but she felt she had to warn him her latest search may have raised a red flag with the NSA. She wasn't too worried about her own safety but she'd feel bad if her hacker friend would get caught.

She continued investigating the results but found nothing of interest to the case. There was no link to the dead corporal, no link to Ralph, and nothing that could explain what exactly was going on. She sighed and leaned back. Had the general contacted Ralph and attempted to get the controller module that way? Maybe he'd been afraid the corporal wouldn't be able to get it? Had Foster realized Ralph's cousin would be more likely to complete the job?

But why would General Foster only need the controller module? Did he already have the other components? She sat up straight again and started a new search to find evidence of other laser components having gone missing. Whether or not other thefts were discovered, didn't really prove one or the other of course; for all Penny knew, this might be just the first part, with other parts to be stolen in the future.

Penny looked at the time and decided she should get some sleep. She could look at the results for her latest search query in the morning, before going over to the precinct. Hopefully Kelvin had some luck in finding Phil. She was fairly certain that would at least solve the murder, possibly indicating Ralph. Who knew where that could lead to?

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny approached Kelvin's desk and saw that he was surprisingly human, even if it was only eight am.

"Morning, Penny. Did you sleep well?"

Penny stared at him for a second. "Okay, who are you and where is the real detective Dale?" With a grin she sat down.

"I understand your confusion and reluctance to believe it's really me. However, there is a good explanation: I've been up since four, when I was notified a patrol unit had eyes on Mr. Bonner. I've asked them to track him, hoping he'd lead us to where he stored the stolen laser equipment."

"Did he?"

"Unfortunately, no. Unless he was stupid enough to store it in either the club he's working at as a bouncer, or in the motel room he's staying in. Paid, by the way, by Mr. Spears."

Penny contemplated that for a second or two. "Phil might not be the brightest, but I seriously doubt he'd keep it where he's staying or working. Then again, you never know."

"I'm waiting on the team currently checking the club, specifically Phil's locker and the office safe. The other team is just about to wake him up. I almost feel sorry for him," Kelvin added with obvious faked sympathy. "Working all night, and then being woken up after just about an hour of sleep."

Penny smiled. "Yeah, he's not going to be happy or very alert. So, you want me to go over to the club or the motel?"

"Right now, we're just gonna sit tight and wait for Mr. Bonner's arrival at the precinct. See what he has to say. Then we go check out the club and the motel."

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny sat across from Phil, Kelvin right next to her. Phil had started making some lewd remarks when he saw her, which Penny had more or less expected; his cousin, definitely the smarter of the two, hadn't been able to completely hide the fact he'd been trying to look down her top, so it stood to reason Phil would be more obvious about his thoughts and wishes.

She was well aware her chosen attire would cause most men to be distracted. She usually deliberately chose her clothing to be a distraction to most men; they usually were more forthcoming with information, and it was less likely they'd perceive her to be a threat. Some people, like Leonard, knew how to treat her with respect and were not viewing her as a sexy cute blond, but as a person. Luckily, those were usually the good guys, guys she didn't have to worry about.

But Penny admitted she'd underestimated Phil's intellect; he really wasn't giving them anything, except for things they already knew. Of course, Phil had done this dance before. He knew when to be quiet, and it was only a matter of time until he'd ask for a lawyer. Penny decided to take a chance. "So, why did your cousin Ralph ask you to steal that component?"

Phil was surprised, but he also became nervous. "He... he's got nothin' to do with it."

"In the past two and a half weeks, you visited him four times, the last time was last Friday and on Sunday you broke in at Caltech. Are you saying Ralph didn't put you up to it?"

"Of course not. Ralphie's smart, has a good job. He don't steal nothing."

"No, he lets you do that for him, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, no. I mean, breakin' and enterin' 's what I do, he got nothing to do with that."

For Penny, his little mistake was enough. Wouldn't hold up in court, but it might be just enough of a reason to get a warrant for a search of Ralph's home. Probably not for his place of work, given that it was a military research facility, but perhaps they could get the military police to execute a search for them.

"I ain't talking no more without my lawyer."

Good thing he hadn't thought of that sooner.

* * *

**To Be Concluded**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Here it is, the conclusion of the story, the solving of the case and the creation of at least a possibility of a future Lenny relationship.**

* * *

Penny was fully focused on her opponent, both of them having a fight staff in their hand. Both trying to find a moment were the other lost just that bit of focus. Penny's opponent was good, very good. In fact, one of the best. That's the sole reason Penny had asked the redhead to train her in hand to hand combat.

It was hard to best Rose; in all these months Penny had yet to win, but she was feeling lucky today. They traded a few jabs, most of them only half meant, as they circled each other. Moments later, Penny's carefully planned distraction activated and she swung her staff against Rose's padded shoulder as the latter momentarily shifted her focus to their phones laying in the corner.

"I saw you turn your phone off," Rose said. "Just like I did."

Penny grinned as she helped her friend and tutor up. "I made it play possum. A friend of mine wrote an app that mimics the phone turning off and it will actually suppress any calls or messages to the phone. At a preset time, it'll turn back on, optionally playing a specific audio file. In this case, my ring tone."

"Can't believe I let myself get distracted like that," Rose said, shaking her head. She looked at Penny. "So, what do you think of my new place?"

"Looks great, definitely more space."

"Yeah. Day after tomorrow they'll be delivering and placing the lockers. If you want, I could reserve you a locker. It would be permanently yours. You'll get two keys, so you could share with someone, as long as you're not both here at the same time. I can only do that for a handful of people, obviously, but you'd be the first."

Penny nodded. "Yeah, that'd be... Damn!" Penny rushed to her phone and tapped Kelvin's contact. "Do Phil and Ralph go to the same gym? And do you know which one?"

"_Good evening, Penny, I'm doing fine. How are you?_"

Great, the one time she wasn't properly greeting him and he tried to get back at her for teasing him about it almost on a daily basis. "Yeah, yeah, good evening. Do you know?"

"_They actually do both go to the same one, though I don't have the information with me at the moment._"

"We need to find out if they have a reserved locker, one they might both use. That's probably how Phil got the component to Ralph."

"_I'll look into it,_" Kelvin promised. "_Anything else?_"

"No, that's it for tonight," Penny replied. "See you in the morning, bright and early." She disconnected before Kelvin could even grumble about her parting shot. She turned to Rose, who was grinning and shaking her head.

"Still can't believe how quickly you connect the dots. But I'm glad, or I might not be around anymore."

Penny seriously doubted that. Yes, Penny and the police had arrived in time and could've prevented Rose from being seriously hurt or killed, but Rose had been a much more difficult target than the gang Penny and Kelvin had been investigating, had expected. "From what I recall, two guys might not ever be able to father a child, thanks to your well-placed kicks. The other two weren't in much better shape."

"You know what I always say, no matter how good you are, there's likely someone better. Besides, I couldn't possibly defend against being shot."

* * *

# # #

* * *

"Great," Kelvin muttered, reading the text he just received. "You're not going to believe this, Penny," he added. "Ralph's gone missing."

Penny frowned, standing in front of the gym locker reserved for Phil. "Didn't you put a team on him to tail him?"

"Yes, but he still managed to slip by them. Apparently he had his girlfriend go out in his hoodie and drive his car around, while he slipped out in her car. They're about the same height."

Penny nodded. "He knew he was being tailed." She sighed. "Then he came here to retrieve the component." She pointed inside the mostly empty locker. "Two parallel running scratch marks from a metallic object, separated by the width of the missing component."

"Damn it," Kelvin said, standing next to her as he peeked inside the locker.

At the same time, Penny read the message Kelvin had received. "Is that the girlfriend's car?"

He glanced at her, then at the text. "Uh, yeah."

"That car was still on the parking lot when we arrived," Penny said, closing her eyes in concentration. "Yeah, all the way to the left, closest to the exit."

"Okay," Kelvin said, heading to the parking lot. "One of these days you have to teach me how you remember so many details even after only seeing them for a short time."

"A girl's gotta have her secrets," Penny replied, following him. "Besides, if I teach you that, you're never gonna need my help again." As they stepped outside, she pointed. "See, there it is."

A short time later they cautiously approached the car, but they found nobody. Penny immediately walked around the vehicle, checking everything. Once she reached the back of the car, all the way on the right, she spotted it. "There was a struggle here," Penny said, indicating the marks on the concrete. "I'd say that component got dropped again, too." She shifted her finger. "Scratched the side of the car here."

She looked closer at the side panel. "There's a slight dent here, about the size of a human head, so one of them had his head rammed into the side."

While Kelvin looked closely at the car, Penny turned her attention to the concrete again.

"I'm not sure, but I think there's a print close to the dent. It's likely from the one who's head was rammed into it. Hopefully that was not Ralph, so we can find out who else is involved."

"I'm gonna guess it's General Foster," Penny said, picking up a patch from the ground and putting it in an evidence bag. "Found a general's epaulet here."

"Okay, I understand the general part, but where did the name come from?"

"He's the general who insisted Caltech continue the research, even though Leonard told them it was pointless." She looked guiltily at Kelvin. "I may have started an investigation into the general."

"Penny, you know we don't have jurisdiction there."

Penny stood up and crossed her arms. "I know that, that's why I didn't tell you earlier. I figured that if the MP just so happened to obtain copies of incriminating evidence from an anonymous source, they might look into it a bit further."

Kelvin sighed. "Fine, what did you find?"

"Lots of redacted briefs and one handwritten memo in the same handwriting as the address we found at the corporal's apartment." She looked just past Kelvin, something having caught her attention through her peripheral vision.

"That links him to the threatening of Corporal Mercer, but could easily be deflected. I doubt it's enough for the military police to look into it."

"They will," Penny said, pointing to the trunk, "once we notify them we found the dear general dead in the trunk of this car." Penny waited patiently for Kelvin to pick the lock, taking way too long for her liking.

"How?"

"A piece of fabric was caught when Ralph closed the trunk, I just noticed it. I figured the guy was dead, or he would've tried to break out or at the very least we would have heard him."

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny decided to stay out of the conversation Kelvin and his captain were having with the military police, something Kelvin seemed to have actually appreciated. With the free time it provided her, she decided to see if she could figure out where Ralph had gone to. Who would be interested in a laser control module? If Leonard was right, the module wasn't all that special. It was also damaged, though the recipient could probably at least reverse engineer it, if it was damaged beyond repair.

So, who could be interested in a broken, more or less basic laser control module? Penny pondered that for a long while, but could not think of any possible candidate. The module was nothing special, no top secret development. Basically, anyone producing any type of laser would have a control module almost similar to the missing one. It had no special function, at least, none that Leonard had been able to find.

Then why had Ralph written the software? Why go to all the trouble of simply recreating the same basic functionality already present in the standard controller the military had? Penny looked toward the captain's office as the door opened and the military police were leaving. She could hear them reminding Kelvin and the captain they'd signed an NDA as the elevator door closed, and immediately Penny realized why the controller was so important.

Penny almost ran to Kelvin as he slowly made his way back. "We gotta find the controller, fast," she said. "I believe Ralph hid some secrets in the code."

"What secrets?"

"Military secrets." Penny could see Kelvin starting to object. "Hear me out. Suppose our dead General, close to retirement, figured he could do with a bit of extra money. I already deduced he's a former spy, probably NSA, ergo, he has lots of secrets. In addition, in his position he probably knew a great deal of more current secrets, or the MP's wouldn't have let you sign an NDA. Now, how to get these secrets off of the base? Answer: hide it in something."

Kelvin nodded slowly. "So, he contacts a software engineer in one of the military research facilities. Part of the same network, so he could send him the secrets without anyone suspecting anything, the software engineer hides it in the code, and the general makes sure the laser ends up somewhere he could have someone get to it."

"Exactly. But Ralph figured he could steal it first and get all the money. General Foster was not happy, confronted him, but Ralph got the upper hand."

Kelvin nodded again. "Makes sense. The General was restricted to a desk job for a couple of decades, due to his injuries. Even going to the gym regularly, he probably couldn't maintain his fitness."

"So, Ralph overpowered him, despite being surprised. He may not even have tried to kill the General. So, you just killed someone, your first ever murder. What do you do?"

"Find someone you trust, to ask for help," Kelvin said.

"Cousin Phil," Penny said in unison with Kelvin.

* * *

# # #

* * *

Penny was waiting patiently in front of Leonard's lab. She'd already seen him pass by with his roommate a minute or so ago. It wouldn't surprise her if Dr. Cooper insisted Leonard accompany him to his office, despite the fact that the most efficient route for Leonard would be for Sheldon to continue on by himself.

After another minute Leonard rounded the corner and Penny smiled brightly. "Hi!"

"Uh, hi?"

"I suppose you already heard how your little find led to a case of military espionage and attempted treason?"

Leonard smiled a bit as he unlocked the lab. "Yeah. The military already retrieved the laser, but thankfully allowed Caltech to keep a substantial portion of the grant."

Penny noticed how Leonard first glanced at the spot where the Corporal had been found. "It'll pass, Leonard," she said sympathetically, rubbing his arm.

"I hope it will soon," he replied. "I've been having nightmares about it every night since Monday."

Penny sat on an empty part of his desk as Leonard plopped down in his chair. "You really should talk to someone, Sweetie."

"Yeah, I already reached out to a psychologist."

Penny nodded. "Good." She paused. "So, I have a little update. As you know, we found the software engineer, who encoded General Foster's secrets, at his cousin's house. He didn't even put up a fight, and confessed to accidentally killing the general. His cousin was less than thrilled when Ralph implicated him on the burglary and killing of the corporal."

Penny went quiet, cursing herself for bringing up the dead person Leonard had found. "Anyway, the military police came and picked up Ralph, along with the stolen controller. His cousin is most likely going to go to prison as well."

Leonard nodded. "I really haven't thanked you yet, for immediately proving I had nothing to do with it."

Penny smiled. "You're welcome." She hopped off the desk, and Leonard politely got out of his chair. Penny hesitated briefly, then turned around to grab an empty post-it and a pen. "I'll give you my cell number and email," she explained as she wrote down her information. "If you need to talk about it, contact me, okay?"

She finished writing and handed the note to Leonard, adding, "I also want to ask if I could contact you in the future, should I need some expert advice about physics? Kinda like my consultant." He looked dubious. "I wouldn't confront you with any corpses or images of victims. It would be strictly related to physics."

"I guess," Leonard finally agreed. "Let me write down my contact information."

Penny grinned. "Hey, detective here," she said, pointing her thumbs toward herself. "Already have everything on you."

He actually grinned at that. "Of course you do. Or, at least you think you do."

Penny raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to him. "Is that a challenge, Dr. Hofstadter?" His nervousness increased; either because she was coming on to him - something Penny found hard _not_ to do, despite her doubts a relationship would be good idea - or because he was afraid she'd figured out something he'd done that he seriously hoped nobody would find out.

She guessed it was a bit of both; Leonard didn't seem to be a guy who expected to be flirted with. And the whole secret rocket fuel mixture thing she had found out about when looking into the elevator situation in his apartment building, was definitely top of the list of things he was unlikely to want her - or anyone, really - to find out about.

Penny now had a problem; she didn't want Leonard to be afraid of her, but he did question her ability to find out anything and that couldn't go completely unpunished. In the end, she decided not to scare him. "You're lucky I try to avoid looking too much into my friends' lives, " she said, hating lying to him, but it felt like the best choice. "Okay, I gotta go. I'll call you when I have some physics mystery, okay?"

He nodded and they said goodbye. On her way to the exit, Penny was already thinking about coming up with a physics problem in the near future, so she could see him again. Past experience made her doubtful of things working out, but perhaps she could try again? She just had to be careful not to look at every lie or attempted subterfuge and approach it as if he was committing a crime, when it was just as likely he was preparing a surprise for her. He'd be worth it to at least try.

* * *

**The End**

**A/N2: I would like to thank bfm10 once more for her excellent beta duties and keep telling me the final Lenny segment was off and that I should fix it.**

**There will be a little break before the second story will start. You know how it is; real life always interferes with the important things.  
**


End file.
